Cleveland Guardians fans can exhale now that Luis Ortiz has won his first game for the club.

After terrible performances in spring training, Ortiz struck out 10 batters in 5 2/3 innings as the Guardians beat the visiting Kansas City Royals 6-3 last night.

Cleveland has started the home schedule with a 5-0 record for the first time since 2002.

Ortiz only gave up one hit, a solo homer by Vinnie Pasquantino in the fourth inning.

Tim Herrin, Paul Sewald, and Cade Smith kept the Royals off the board. Then it was time for the ninth inning, and Cleveland had a 6-1 lead.

ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM

Emmanuel Clase had another poor outing, giving up four hits and two runs in the ninth. His ERA ballooned to 7.71.

So far, this hasn’t been a big problem for the Guardians. If Clase falters, Hunter Gaddis and the three aforementioned relievers could come to the rescue.

ARIAS STAYS HOT

Gabriel Arias played the game of his life on Friday, and he did more damage to the Royals last night.

He tied the game 1-1 in the fourth with an infield single to score Carlos Santana.

Jose Ramirez put Cleveland ahead in the fifth with a sacrifice fly to score Bo Naylor.

Arias smashed an opposite-field homer to right-center to increase the Guardians’ lead to 3-1.

Cleveland scored three more runs in the eighth. Angel Martinez hit a two-run ground-rule double thanks to fan interference at the left-field fence.

Arias scored Cleveland’s final run on a wild pitch by Sam Long.

THE SECRET SAUCE

One great thing about this series is that the Guardians are missing one of the Royals’ All-Star starters. Seth Lugo pitched against Minnesota earlier in the week.

The other, Cole Ragans, will try to stop Cleveland from the completing the sweep today. Ben Lively will throw the first pitch at 1:40 p.m.